The public loves magic. Nearly everyone, at least in public schools,
can look back on their younger years and remember when the magician
played the schools. The kids went nuts getting ready for the big day,
then spent the rest of the day and maybe the rest of the week trying to
figure out how all the tricks were done.

That same love and curiosity continued into adulthood, which is why so
many audiences are attracted to street magicians like David Blane, cold
readers like John Edwards, or Vegas-style illusionists like Doug
Henning and David Copperfield.

“The Prestige” started as a novel by Christopher Priest. Priest is an
English horror/SF novelist who doesn’t hesitate to mix the two genres
to get whatever effect he chooses for his stories. Director Christopher
Nolan was so concerned over the movie’s ending being given away to
American audiences that he kept an American tie-in edition to the movie
from being published. Tor Books still got the rights to publish the
novel, but they had to do so without the trade dress of the movie.

Christopher Nolan, director of “Batman Begins” and “Memento”, has an
unerring sense of direction and pacing, and the sets action are
absolutely stunning. He demonstrates a keen understanding of Victorian
England as well as the magic community. As adroitly as any stage
magician, Nolan stays with his main story, but he introduces a lot of
trivia that makes interesting backstory and will probably compel the
viewer to go in search of further information. The war between Nikolai
Tesla (played by David Bowie in the movie) and Thomas Edison rivals
that of the two magicians at the center of this film. Furthermore, the
field of lights that Tesla created also inspires curiosity about the
man and what he truly did.

The story revolves around two young magicians just getting a leg up in
the world while apprenticing to another magician. Robert Angier (Hugh
Jackman) has a mind and flair for showmanship. As he helps work out the
water torture chamber, he complains about their mentor’s lack of proper
stage presence. Jackman does an excellent job of bringing Angier to
limited life. Viewers will feel his passion for magic, showmanship, his
wife, and vengeance.

Alfred Borden, played by Christian Bale, is more of a street rat and
interested in the technical side of magic. He wants to learn more and
show the audiences things they haven’t seen instead of simply
re-imagining the same tired magic acts they’ve all seen before. Bale
plays Borden rather tight-lipped and intense, but it suits the
character and helps mask all the surprises he presents later.
Unfortunately the plot twists and surprises preclude any further review
of his portrayal of this role.

Michael Caine is a perennial favorite. He’d co-tarred in “Batman
Begins”, indicating he’s a favorite of Christopher Nolan as well. He
plays Cutter, the prop man who helps magicians come up with tricks, and
he also plays something of a father figure to Borden and Angier. Caine
delivers the role with such nice touches that he’s a pure pleasure to
watch. As always, the man is amazing. He can play royalty, a villain, a
pauper, and a genteel soul, go from leading man to supporting character
in a heartbeat.

Scarlett Johansson portrays Olivia Wenscombe with a touch of
lasciviousness, grace, and cranky possessiveness. Her time on the
screen is actually small, but the part plays big. Borden and Angier’s
reactions to and use of Olivia are sharp realizations of their
character as well as hers.

Borden’s wife, Sarah, is played by Rebecca Hall. The role is filled
with such quiet desperation and adoration of her husband that the
events that unfold have a more dramatic effect. The final scenes with
her are free of dialogue but more compelling because of her delivery.

Andy Serkis actually steals the movie on several occasions with his
portrayal of Alley, Nikolai Tesla’s assistant and major domo. He’s a
pleasure to watch as he calmly walks in and mesmerizes the viewer with
his quiet, intense acting. Judging from his upcoming projects, others
have noticed his quiet skills as well. And, of course, he was the
motion-capture model for Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” movies.

Piper Perabo stars as Angier’s wife. Again, she doesn’t actually appear
onscreen for a long time, but she softens the hard edges of Angier’s
character and brings him as close to being likeable as he ever gets the
whole movie. The relationship she helps bring to life during those few
minutes seems sweet and tender.

Rocker David Bowie turns in a solid performance as eccentric genius
Nikolai Tesla. He’s quiet and reserved, very much in character, and yet
the viewer gets a sense of the demons and dreams that drove him.

The film’s plot closely follows Priest’s book. It begins with an
interesting hook, where one of the magicians is accused of the other
one’s death. The audience watches everything but doesn’t know why the
animosity is there or what is really going on. What they see looks like
a tragic accident. But is it?

From that point, Christopher Nolan works the technical side of the
storytelling for all its worth. He renders three stories, all of them
seemingly told by Borden and Angier’s journals, with everything kept
strictly aboveboard. However, misdirection is ever the most telling
weapon in a professional stage magician’s arsenal. Nolan, in his way,
is as crafty as any of the illusionists working today. His handling of
the material is masterful. He actually tells the audience how he’s
doing his tricks, but they don’t believe him.

Where the story, to an extent, veers so sharply off course is the lack
of knowing which magician to root for. Borden and Angier swap roles of
being the villain almost at the drop of a magician’s hat. It makes for
vastly interesting storytelling and lots of plot possibilities, as well
as a see-saw cat-and-mouse chase as they exchange the roles of predator
and prey as well.

The problem is if the viewer sees through the magic of the trick too
easily or too soon, which is unlikely, the trick gets ruined. But
Nolan’s gift for pacing throws that off to a degree. He keeps the three
balls of his storylines in the air and casually makes them disappear
and reappear so quickly that the viewer’s fascination may dull the
awareness.

The historical aspects of the movie are spot-on. Nolan’s atmospherics
pull the viewer in gently and sweep them into the stories. With three
different tales going on at once, all of them more or less concurrently
in viewing time, the viewer always has something to keep up with. The
sets lend to the viewer’s distraction, ever-changing so none of the
sets becomes too familiar.

The high-def video aspects bring out the best of the movie’s visual
aspects. The picture is clear and clean, and the presentation allows
the depth of detail the set designers went to in order to create those
worlds.

The audio portion of the movie, the soundtrack, the echoing timber of
the theaters, and the mechanical noises of the equipment working
(especially the SNAP of the magic cage killing the dove at one point)
all hammer the viewer’s senses. Nolan uses the sound to build the
illusion and provide distraction as well.

There are a lot of special features on the disc. Viewers that enjoy the
movie, or want to see how it all came together technically, are
encouraged to take a look at The Director’s Notebook, where Nolan loads
up background and technical aspects of making “The Prestige”. The
section on Tesla is interesting and enlightening.

“The Prestige” is a good movie rental, and viewers may view it
immediately again after watching it the first time as some reviewers
have stated, but it’s just a great trick that isn’t going to leave an
emotional impact. More than that, people who have seen the film are
going to have a hard time talking about the movie with someone who
hasn’t seen it, without giving too much away. The movie is worth
watching once, or maybe twice, but replay value beyond that is almost
negligible unless the viewer wants the chance to study more of Nolan,
Jackman, Bale, or Caine’s work.

Backstage: The Director's Notebook: The Cinematic Sleight Of Hand Of Christopher Nolan: Conjuring The Past, The Visual Maze, Metaphors Of Deception, Advocate For The Audience, Tesla: The Man Who Invented The Twentieth Century; The Art Of The Prestige: Film, Behind The Scenes, Costumes And Sets, Poster Art; Movie Showcase: Instant Access To Select Movie Scenes That Showcase The Ultimate In High Definition Picture And Sound; Seamless Menus; Closed Captioned